A woman with severe OCD says it left her with 90 debilitating daily rituals – such as a 16-hour phone routine, weeing in a bucket and needing to drive round a roundabout five times.
Emily Newcombe, 32, first noticed symptoms of OCD age six, when she spent Christmas day trapped in her room folding her sheets until they were ‘just right’.
As she got older, her condition got progressively worse, and she became unable to have a shower or go to the toilet and had to wee in a bucket outside as going to the bathroom became “too intense”.
She had to stop driving, as she would go round roundabouts again and again, and had to leave her job in events, as her symptoms were too severe.
In September 2024, Emily, from Barnsley, was admitted to hospital for 12 weeks of intense therapy, and although she said it helped a bit, she now does a daily “phone ritual”, that takes her 16 hours to complete and involves her measuring certain items, and pressing certain buttons on her phone over and over again.
Emily, who first told her story to Talk to the Press said: “I first noticed something was wrong when I was six years old on Christmas Day.
“I spent four hours in my room straightening my duvet and arranging my teddies.
“When my family came over for dinner, my parents tried to get me to come downstairs.
“They stripped the bed and moved all my teddies, and I found it so distressing.
“I’ve become a bit of a recluse, because I’ve lost friends through it.
“It got so severe that I couldn’t use the shower or the toilet, I had to wee in a bucket outside.
“The ritual of going to the toilet just got two intense.
“I never expected my OCD to get as bad as it did, it was so upsetting and distressing.
“When I went into the hospital, I had 90 rituals that were taking over my life, doctors said it was the worst case they’d seen in 10 years.”
OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) is a mental health condition where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.
Emily has perfectionism OCD, sometimes called ‘just right’ OCD, where individuals feel intense internal discomfort unless things are “just right,” leading to repetitive behaviours, such as rearranging things, tapping or retyping.
On Christmas day, when Emily was six, she remembers spending four hours straightening her duvet cover and arranging her teddies.
When Emily’s extended family came over for Christmas dinner, her parents tried to coax her out of her room.
They stripped her bed and moved the teddies, to try and stop her from rearranging them, but this caused Emily a huge amount of distress.
Emily’s parents didn’t think too much of her behaviour at the time, assumed she was going through a “phase”.
However, her symptoms continued to worsen, and at school she would spend hours arranging her book bags and folders in certain patterns.
“I would be late for school because I’d be fiddling with the blinds, they had to be straight,” she said.
Eventually Emily’s teachers began to pick up on the symptoms, and suggested she may have OCD, but she was not given a formal diagnosis.
As she got older, her symptoms started to affect friendships, with Emily’s pals performing a “disappearing act”, as they thought her behaviour was “strange”.
“I’d need to tap the table a certain number of times before it felt right, or if I went out for a drink I’d have to line my coke bottles up,” she said.
“I have one friend that stuck by me and really understands, but I lost all of my other friends.”
Then in 2024, her symptoms got dramatically worse, to the point where she couldn’t have a shower or go to the toilet, and she had to wee in a bucket, as the ritual of going to the bathroom became “too intense” for her.
She would also have to dress herself and undress herself over and over again, until it felt “just right”, making daily life a huge struggle.
“It was a nightmare,” she said.
By September 2024, Emily had over 90 rituals that she had to do each day, that were making everyday life impossible.
She had to stop driving, as she would have to put her seatbelt on and off 20 to 30 times, and go around roundabouts five times.
She can no longer go to the supermarket, as she would have to move backwards and forwards with her trolley in a certain pattern.
Emily was admitted to Kendray Hospital, where she was finally diagnosed with OCD, aged 30, and underwent 12 weeks of intensive CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), a form of therapy which helps individuals to understand the relationships between their thoughts feelings and behaviours.
She said the therapy helped slightly, but after returning home from hospital in January 2025, her severe symptoms continued, and she now has a daily “phone ritual” which takes her 16 hours a day to complete.
“I have to stand in one position for hours and measure certain items, and I feel a compulsion to press certain buttons on my phone until it feels right, but it doesn’t feel right, so it takes me hours on end”, she said.
Emily said that the “phone ritual” leaves her standing still for up to eight hours at a time, which has caused her foot to swell up and become extremely sore.
In March 2026, Emily had a consultation with renowned OCD expert Professor David Veale, who recommended she has ERP (exposure response prevention) treatment, a therapy that helps individuals confront anxiety-provoking thoughts.
“They would probably take my phone off me, to stop the phone ritual, and make me do things that feel wrong to me, to train my brain to think I’m doing them right,” she said.
However, as the therapy costs up to £4,000 a week, it is not something that Emily can currently afford.
